1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to security of server blades, and more specifically to preventing unauthorized physical interaction with a server blade.
2. Background of the Related Art
Data processing systems in general and server-class systems in particular are frequently implemented within a server chassis or rack. Each chassis or rack can hold a device (also referred to herein as a blade or server blade) on which one or more general purpose processors and/or memory devices are attached. The chassis or server blades are vertically spaced within the rack according to an industry standard displacement (the “U”). Chassis and racks are characterized in terms of this dimension such that, for example, a 42 U rack is capable of receiving 42 1 U rack-mounted devices, 21 2 U devices, or similar combinations of devices. In some instances, a server chassis may provide shared components, such as power supplies, fans, or media access devices which can be shared among all of the blades in the server blade chassis.
In a server blade environment, the ability to hot plug server blades into a chassis or rack is a standard feature. Hot plugging refers to the ability to install and remove a blade without turning off power to the chassis or rack in which the blade is received. When a new server blade is initially installed into a rack, the blade generally contains no operating system and no persistent data. Making a newly added blade functional requires deployment software that is capable of recognizing that a new blade has been added, determining the blade characteristics to uniquely identify the blade, powering the blade on, and assigning a functional boot image to the blade. For purposes of this disclosure, a boot image refers generally to software stored in persistent storage that is executed following a power-on or system reset event. The boot image may execute a self test (commonly referred to as a power on self test or POST), load a basic I/O system (BIOS) into memory, and install a functional operating system.
While the use of a chassis, rack or both can beneficially facilitate the easy configuration and expansion of server systems, it also allows server blades to be moved about quickly and easily. The mobility of rack-mounted server blades can increase the difficulty of monitoring the exact location of blades within a system or group of systems.